Practically Perfect - Matthew 5: 38-48

I’m a bit of a Broadway fanatic. Recently I went to see Mary Poppins in the city with a friend to celebrate her birthday. While I think Julie Andrews is an amazing actress, Disney’s Mary Poppins was far from my favorite movie; in fact I thought it down right scary at times. Perhaps that could be attributed to the fact that I found Mary to be a bit over-bearing and unhappy in her demeanor. So imagine my surprise when Mary is a cheerful nanny who introduces herself to the children by singing “Practically Perfect”, in which she declares, “I’m practically perfect in every way.”

Mary’s statement gives us a lot to think about as we approach today’s text. Jesus seems to be laying out an impossible task – to be perfect as God is perfect. And oh how we’ve abused this verse and the proverbial statements that precede it. We’ve created an image of perfection in our heads that few would even want to obtain –nonsensical, prudish, unimaginative, and perhaps even gruff. Someone who doesn’t smile or laugh or have fun. As a United Methodist, one of the tenants of our tradition is that we are moving on towards perfection, but if these characteristics mark perfection it is most certainly not who I want to be, nor is it who I wish to lead people to discover as their pastor.

Yet isn’t that all to often how we envision God? Aloof, lacking a sense of humor, asking us to strive for something never to be reached. Further, these commands that Jesus give are unattainable at best and damning at worst. They seem to point out everything that we fail to be in our walk with God: forgiving, charitable, and unconditionally loving. As we note our own failures in these areas, our tendency is either to dismiss God as being irrational, which can perhaps explain the exodus of young people from our congregations, or to over-correct our behavior. We abuse God’s commands in order to make ourselves feel humble, even if our zeal for perfection is misguided.

Think back to New Testament 101. Roman rule, like Jewish law, was based on an honor-shame society. You were judged by your actions, as well as your families. “But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn also the other.” This verse has been construed as Jesus saying that we should subject ourselves to shame and abuse at the hands of another. But how many of us are quelling this misperception by teaching a bit of history to our congregations – that to turn the left cheek to be slapped would require the victim to reclaim their honor as if stating that one slap alone could not shame them. Further, the hand positioning is key. The striker cannot backhand slap the person with his or her right hand. The only other option would be to punch the person with a fist, and punching and slapping are not the same thing. To slap shows power, while to punch affirms someone as an equal. Turning and offering the left cheek resulted in a quandary for the person who originally slapped the individual that would ultimately cause her or his shame, not the person’s being slapped.

Yet, how many of us share this brief history lesson? And if we are not, we must ask why. Perhaps if we would, this verse would not be one used by victims of domestic violence to justify staying with their partners. Perhaps it would make us rethinking our reaction to evil – it is not passive, but active. Perfection is not passive or unimaginative. It calls for us to think outside of the constrains of our culture in order to put forth a radical message of resistance.

In America we are really good at giving people what they do not need and ignoring what they ask for. In other words we give people what we think they need. Once again a history lesson. Who would be sued for a coat? Probably not a rich person with many coats, but someone on the edge of being destitute, who has lost everything else in life and thus only has one thing worth being brought to court for. The article of clothing that acted as a lifeline, acting as a blanket, shelter, and storage area. And now someone else wants to take it away to repay an impossible debt. Imagine the shame! Yet, Jesus commands that the person being asked for their coat to give their cloak – or undergarment – as well. In other words, you would be naked. This would not be to your shame, as the debtor, but to the one who was suing you, as you handed over your coat and cloak while everything else hung out. Once again it is nothing short of an active way of speaking out against injustice. Perfection has a sense of humor to it, and most certainly is not prudish or stingy, as we are admonished to “give to everyone who begs from you and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”

We live in a hyper-rational world that asks for us to examine where our monetary gifts will go before handing it out. But for me the command to give to everyone who begs from you came alive on the streets of St. Kilda’s, Victoria in Australia. St. Kilda’s is the unsafe neighborhood in the entire providence. It is marked by IV drugs, prostitution, rape, murder, theft, and alcohol abuse. But when approached for money when entering a local restaurant for dinner, my traveling campaign did not think twice before digging into his wallet and giving the local man the largest bill he could find. We met the man after getting dessert, to find that he was too inebriated to recognize either of us as he once again pleaded for money. This time my friend walked with him to the bus in order to pay his fare to get him home. When I asked my friend if he was disappointed with how his money had been spent, he profoundly said that love gives first and asks questions later. Perfection is not bound by the restraints of worry.

Because at the end of the day, Jesus’ commands boil down to the idea of loving your enemies, those whom you would not normally associate with. This is a derivative of loving your neighbor as yourself from Leviticus 19. Or in the translation of Dr. Fewell, “love your neighbor who is like you”. Jesus is reminding us that not only the people we consider to be our neighbors like us, but our enemies as well. Perfection is not about separating ourselves from people, but looking another human being in the eye and seeing the piece of Divine love that lead to their creation. And when we see that Divine spark it should be harder to bring that person shame. It is easy to love those we like, but it is moving towards perfection when we begin to love those we do not like, those whom we have built a wall between in order to keep ourselves from becoming contaminated in our minds.

Jesus effectively took the entire concept of who God is and what it means to be perfect like God and turned it on its head. It goes against what it means to be set apart and spiritual. It bucks the idea that God has to be fair. It also stands up to the notion that perfection is passive. For in the words of Mary Poppins, “I didn’t say I was fair, I said, I’m practically perfect and here’s my aim, by the time I leave here you both will be the same, you’ll be practically perfect… in every way.”

God does not call us to be stingy, judgmental, and boring. This is not the perfection we are moving towards. Like Mary Poppins with the Bank’s children, God wants us to reach into our imaginations and rethink what it means to live being our best possible selves. As current leaders, I ask you, what are we trying to make perfection into in our churches? Can we accept laughter, joy, and creativity as part of the spiritual disciplines that mark moving towards perfection? Can we envision perfection as radical resistance to a culture trying to restrain us? Or are we going to settle to preach misguided notions of the boring passivity perfection is perceived to be, instead of what being practically perfect truly is? Perhaps when we set aside our ideas about perfection for God’s, we will see that perfection is a bit more achievable and is much more exciting. That is something I am thrilled to move towards and preach. Being practically perfect. Amen.